fiction

creative non-fiction

Eunsong Kim

Page Six

All of the celebrities have been eradicated. The news is expected & without thrill. They are now myths, a symbol of the future. It happened suddenly, and slowly and even as they visibly disappeared no one protested.The remaining celebrities refused to point to the cause. They will not call out what they have done. What has been done to them.

A few of them, donning large black brimmed sunglasses and gorgeous hats, give cryptic interviews in the dark, or answer questions over the phone. Too little was said. And then they all died.

You would think that the industry would have procured a new crop waiting to be entranced. But it didn’t happen. It turned out that agents, writers, producers, editors, cinematographers, film composers, musicians, fitness instructors, hair and makeup personnel, small and big time chefs, dreaming assistants and all others connected too were gone. It became a ghastly desire, to want to be like them. Very few could justify it and then other things (everyone’s nudity) took over.

There were rumors of airborne poisons, particularly placed by the left. To squall and dismantle their propaganda, begin fresh. There were rumors that this was a rumor placed by the government, who grew tired of the industry’s reaching plotlines, their sympathetic nods to the absurd. There were other tales of spinal fluid replacement, of black market technology shared to retain their impossible youth. Untested and ultimately, fatal. These rumors have circled and circled and have now become the lesson.

Spot the traitor, reject the medications, stay silent and still.

Infiltrator’s Marginalia!

I joined because anytime something goes wrong I know it’s us. I say us because I look like them. I have their hair. Their pale, shell skin. My freckles grow upwards and out. I cover my mouth as they taught me. There is so much inside of me that is them so I say us.The news reports on the rebels being assassinated of factory workers being blown up of protesters receiving life sentences for holding one honest sentence too close—before any announcements I know it’s us.

The government makes an announcement not to worry the businesses will be protected and by protected we will blow them all up and migrate newly dead workers over if we have to so don’t worry these things are ours don’t worry and we continue eating and walking and floating in their world.

I don’t work for the government but it doesn’t matter. I never had their money but it doesn’t matter. Just like the assassinations are decided in proximity to the master sign, our accusations will be placed on those farthest. Your distance is the only requirement to be targeted by

& killed by—

So here I am. As us as can be and but as treacherous as treacherous as they could never imagine—

Eunsong Kim is​ a writer and educator residing in ​southern California​. Her ​poetry and writings on contemporary culture have appeared or will be forthcoming in Minnesota Review, LIT, Interim, Coconut Magazine, Iowa Review, Seattle Review, Tinfish, Denver Quarterly,​ AAWW’s The Margins​, The New Inquiry, Model View Culture ​​amongst others.